Hybridisation effect on diffusion kinetic and tensile mechanical behaviour of epoxy based flax-glass composites

This paper aims at investigating the hybridisation effect on the diffusion kinetic and the tensile mechanical behaviour of flax-glass fibres reinforced epoxy composites. For this purpose, hybrid composites composed of flax and glass fibre laminates with different stacking sequences were consolidated by compression moulding and subjected to environment ageing. The obtained results show that the water uptake and the diffusion coefficient are clearly reduced by the addition of glass fibre layers in flax laminate. The ageing conditions performed show that the flax-glass hybridisation presents a positive effect in a wet environment at low temperatures (similar to 20 degrees C) in the Young's modulus and the tensile strength. For example, the Young's modulus fell by 50% and 41% for hybrid laminates with 6% and 11% of glass fibres, and by 67% for the Flax laminate. However, the flax-glass hybridisation was not necessarily a relevant choice when the hybrid laminates were exposed in a wet environment at high temperatures. Indeed, at 55 degrees C, this hybridisation had a negative effect on the tensile strength and on the specific tensile strength. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.